I could see him snort at that – as he did at any reference to the previous chairman.

“Well Boeing seems to have got itself in a pickle here; it’s quite happy that its man Stonecipher can singlehandedly start a transatlantic trade war, but at the slightest hint of damp pantihose, it goes all moralistic. So let’s learn from that and draw up some new guidance.”

Relieved, I made for the door.

“And Hartley,” he said in his driest tone, “in future, we’ll drop any reference to ‘shafting the staff’. I prefer the guidance: ‘one doesn’t fish off the end of the company pier’. And yes, that is the basis for the new policy.”